You are here.
See this tiny dot heating up like there's no tomorrow?
Yep, that's us, heading full speed
toward a disastrous 3-degree Celsius temperature increase
in the next century or so.
And this is where we actually need to be--
1.5 degrees Celsius.
Small miscalculation, big consequences.
We have less than 10 years to fix it.
And all this carbon pollution in the atmosphere?
Pushing the temperature higher and higher.
OK, it's about time we start using all the tools we have.
Because the emissions we're cutting right now
don't, well, cut it.
That's where carbon markets come in.
Carbon markets are based on something
we've been doing since the dawn of time--
exchange.
After all, we exchange everything--
glances, ideas, gifts, currency.
So why not carbon emissions or, rather, credit
for reducing emissions?
We still need to stop pumping carbon into the air.
There's no way around that.
But implementing the technology we need to reach zero emissions
will take time we don't actually have.
After all, we can drive electric cars,
but right now, planes still need to burn fuel.
Building cities and houses releases even more carbon,
but we still need a roof over our heads
while we fight climate change.
That's why we need to actually take this carbon out of the air
and store it someplace where it can't heat up the planet.
The upside?
Trees do just that.
They store carbon for a living.
The downside?
We have a habit of cutting too many of them down.
But here's the thing, we can turn this around.
Carbon markets help handle today's
hardest-to-reach emissions by basically paying people
to leave more trees standing.
In exchange for some of the carbon pollution
a company can't stop today, they can
pay someone else, like a landowner,
to protect trees they might have planned to cut down,
ensuring they keep pulling more carbon out of the air for years
to come.
That's the real kicker.
Carbon markets don't just reduce emissions today.
They're buying the tree power we will
need to help us reach zero emissions on the balance sheet
forever.
They're not a perfect solution, but we're
in a race against time.
You are here.
Time to get moving.
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